


diamond heart

by possibilityleft



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friends to Lovers, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 04:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10482309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possibilityleft/pseuds/possibilityleft
Summary: Magnus and Taako start out sleeping together -- just sleeping.  Magnus isn't sure what to do when he realizes he wants more than that.Magnus had never been a cat person, but after living with Taako for several months, he suspected that he could survive with one now.  Taako behaved rather like the cats that had been a staple in every barn he'd ever wandered into.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This story should be considered AU for two main reasons: Kravitz does not appear at all, and the timeline is kind of weird. I wrote it with the idea that it was set pre-Wonderland, but it would probably fit better as pre-Eleventh Hour based on some of Taako's behavior.
> 
> The title is from the Lady Gaga song of the same name.

Magnus had never been a cat person, but after living with Taako for several months, he suspected that he could survive with one now. Taako behaved rather like the cats that had been a staple in every barn he'd ever wandered into. Sometimes they'd emerge from behind a barrel or seemingly pop into existence next to him, rubbing on his ankles or bumping his hand with their heads. Other times, they'd streak past hissing and he'd never know what he'd done to offend them. Cats were capricious beasts, even when you weren't in their barns for the express purpose of jumping from the hayloft.

(Magnus had set what he claimed was the town record for highest jump without breaking a limb. He'd also set the record for highest jump with breaking a limb, but the wrist healed pretty cleanly.)

It was different now that they had their own rooms instead of sharing the dorm. Before, he never could be certain who was leaving the old dishes on the floor or flinging clothes on every bunk. Now that they each had a certain amount of privacy, it was clear. Merle's room was neat and tidy, except for the books, scrolls, and plants that covered every bare surface. He made his bed every day, Magnus was pretty sure, but he always had dirt under his fingernails. Magnus liked to think he was neat enough; he usually put away his laundry the same week that he washed it, and he made sure to put the trash out regularly. He swept the crumbs out of the bed into the floor. It wouldn't be to Julia's standards, but for a bachelor, it was good enough. The kitchen in their rooms was a bit of an afterthought, likely because most people chose to eat in the cafeteria, but it had been crammed galley-style into a corner of their living space, with a tiny sink that was somehow always full of moldering dishes.

Taako's pit of a bedroom often spilled out into the shared spaces, as did Taako. Despite his room being full of clothes, gemstones, assorted weaponry, jars of unknown substances, sheaves of dried flowers, and even stranger things that Taako would claim were either cooking-, elf-, or magic-related, depending on the day, Magnus rarely found Taako in it. Maybe he blended in to the chaos when he was. Mostly, Taako was in Magnus's room when Magnus came back from practice or dinner, dangling his boots off the side of the bed if he was feeling nice, or his head if he wasn't in the mood to care. He was always watching Magnus, his eyes glimmering like a cat's in the dimness, and chattering about something or another.

Magnus didn't mind the company too much. Taako always had the good gossip; he'd known about Carey and Killian before anyone else, and he'd given Magnus a sharp-tooth triumphant smile when they ran into the pair in the hallway for the first time, their hands clasped and swinging, their faces flushed.

"I mean, we could all die tomorrow," Taako said after the women had gone on past them down the hallway. "Why not?"

Magnus was a good friend, so he didn't comment on the wistfulness that was almost hidden in Taako's voice underneath the forced casualness. Taako never asked him about Julia, so Magnus never asked Taako why there were always pans in their tiny kitchen sink, and yet Magnus never saw him eating anything he'd actually made himself. He knew Taako didn't sleep much, if ever -- this was apparently an elf thing -- and he would have known even if the clattering of pots and silverware didn't wake him on occasion. He knew what it felt like to have eyes on his back, and the first few times he'd woken with a start, body stiff, before he heard Taako's measured tones behind him.

"Chill out, kemosabe. You left your belt in the living room. Be a shame if your pants fell off during training tomorrow, and by a shame, I mean hilarious." Magnus heard the belt buckle jingle as it hit the floor, but by the time he turned over, Taako was gone, the door shut behind him. He always had some kind of excuse at first.

But after their last mission, Taako had said nothing when Magnus had woken. Instead he'd padded over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, his back pressed to Magnus's. Magnus had yawned and mumbled, "Wha?" Maybe he'd missed a summons from the Director, although if he had, he'd have expected Merle to be the one shaking him awake, and then the two of them together would have had to try to figure out where Taako had gotten to. When he wasn't cooking and dumping his creations into the trash, Taako often wandered the moon base at night, exploring all of its nooks and crannies. He'd found a volleyball court once, he claimed, and tried to take Magnus back there during daylight, but they never could locate it again.

"Nothing, shut up," Taako said, pushing suddenly at the small of Magnus's back to prompt him to move over. Magnus did, still sleepily obedient, and Taako lay down beside him, pulling on the blanket and slipping underneath it. The bed was small -- Magnus hadn't thought he needed extra space for a clingy wizard -- and Taako was kind of spooning him, his nose pressed into Magnus's shoulder.

Magnus wanted to be a good friend, and he wanted to be a good caretaker to this feral cat of a wizard, but he didn't know how to feel about this. It was comforting, so easy and pleasant to have another body so close to his own again, but it had been a long time. He wasn't one much for one-night stands, and although the boys often shared a tent when they were adventuring, it was different when there were three of them there in separate sleeping bags. Tonight, there wasn't any moonlight filtering through the canvas, no soft snuffling of Merle's breath (fortunately, no terrible fart smells courtesy of their cleric friend either). Taako usually took the longest watch too, and whenever he came off he would sit silently and meditate, or sleep sitting up, or some of both, Magnus suspected.

"Just go back to sleep," Taako muttered into Magnus's shoulder. He smelled like burnt sugar and alcohol. He wrapped his arm around Magnus's waist and rested his hand on Magnus's stomach.

And Magnus had, despite his misgivings. Taako didn't sleep with him every night after that, but it was more frequent than not, even though he was always gone by the time Magnus woke a little before dawn to start his morning workout. Merle hadn't noticed, Magnus figured, because otherwise he'd be teasing the two of them. Magnus sometimes glanced into Taako's room when he passed -- the door was always open, often because of the mess blocking it from closing -- and the bed was always rumpled, but he realized the rumpling didn't change often. Taako rarely slept there, if at all.

*

It wasn't too long after that that Magnus realized he was a terrible friend. A great friend would just have accepted Taako's overtures as comfort and affection. Magnus found himself reacting differently. When he woke up alone in the night, he found himself reaching for Taako, and disappointed if he wasn't there. A normal person would have been grateful to have the entirety of the bed to himself again, but often Magnus found himself unable to drift back into slumber unless he could hear evidence of Taako's presence elsewhere in the dorms. (Fortunately for him, if Taako was around, that was almost always immediately evident by banging sounds, curses, off-key humming, or some combination of the three. It was a good thing Magnus slept deeply most of the time.)

And then Taako started to touch him during daylight hours too. Magnus was a very physical person -- his hugs were famous, he liked to brag, and each one of his friends had survived several, except for Taako, who had always done his best to dodge this part of team bonding. Stealing a hug from Taako involved some pre-planning or surprising him, and once Taako figured out how to cast Blink, Magnus usually ended up hugging air. It was just another way, he had privately thought, that Taako was like a cat. He always complained that Magnus's hugs caused wrinkles and rumpling, and he was disinterested. Afterwards, he always made a production out of straightening his hat and brushing himself off.

But now, that had changed -- Magnus felt a featherlight brush of fingers on the back of his hand as Taako passed him in the hallway, a palm at the small of his back as if in greeting when Taako came to breakfast (always the last to arrive). If Magnus was in Taako's path, Taako would push by without bothering with an attempt to avoid touching him. Magnus felt Taako's fingernails on his neck one morning, and his body shuddered in an automatic response. Taako didn't move away. He dug in his grip for just a moment before yawning, stretching, and adjusting his position.

Magnus didn't trust himself to reach back, although he leaned into the touch. He felt suddenly awkward again, like a teenager trying to figure out courting. He kept telling himself that he didn't want to mess up a good thing, and that there was no way to know how serious Taako was with his overtures, and that their lives were intertwined and complicated enough already, weren't they?

But one night Magnus awoke with a start because he could feel Taako trembling beside him in the small bed, making soft, desperate sounds that Magnus recognized as sleep terrors. Taako had mentioned once offhandedly that he had nightmares once in awhile, but Magnus had never been present before to witness them. He wasn't sure what you were supposed to do for night terrors, his sleep-fogged mind trying to remember. Do you wake the person up, or do they die if they die in the dream? Or was that just sleepwalking?

Magnus turned over clumsily. Usually Taako slept with his front against Magnus's back, half sprawled over him most of the time, but he'd twisted around to face out into the room, and Magnus could just see in the dimness that Taako's face was pressed into the pillow. Gently, Magnus brushed the hair out of Taako's face, and when that provoked no reaction, wrapped him into a broad hug, squeezing tightly with the idea that Taako would be able to realize that Magnus was there and he was safe. Taako gasped -- maybe he'd squeezed too hard -- and jolted awake, bolting up as much as he could considering Magnus's constricting grip, smacking the back of his head pretty hard against Magnus's nose.

"Oww!" Magnus protested, letting go, and Taako sat up the rest of the way, wiping furiously at his eyes and then fussing with his hair, patting down his braid to make sure it was still in place and elbowing Magnus in the shoulder as he did. Magnus grabbed his nose because of the pain, but after a moment realized it wasn't bleeding, so he was fine.

"You okay?" Magnus asked.

"Getting there," Taako said, a remarkably true answer for him, and they sat there in the dark for another minute before Taako made a small gesture that caused a tiny fireball to appear at the end of his index finger.

"Let me see," he commanded, twisting around towards Magnus, and that's when Magnus realized he was still holding his nose. He dropped his hand sheepishly. Taako leaned in for a closer look using his magelight, and reached the same conclusion as Magnus already had.

"You're fine, you big baby," he said. "Me, I might have a couple cracked ribs, but I'll push through it."

He'd brought his face quite close to Magnus's in order to survey the damages, and Magnus had a sudden furious desire to kiss him. He reached out and took Taako's chin with two fingers, and Taako just watched him, his eyes glowing a little in the reflection from the small, trembling firelight, so Magnus shut his eyes, leaned forward, and kissed him.

It had been a very long time since he'd kissed anyone. He didn't want to be thinking that right now, because the guilt he lived with was a constant specter in his life, and he didn't think Julia would even mind after all this time, given that she was dead and probably had better things to think about. But he couldn't help the thought, although it faded away as one hesitant kiss became a second, longer one, and then Taako nipped at his lip and Magnus was grabbing at his shoulder like a man seeking something firm to keep from drowning.

The magelight fizzled out completely -- Magnus could tell the difference in the light level even with his eyes closed, and he smiled a little to himself, because that meant Taako had forgotten to concentrate on it. So Magnus might be kind of rusty, but he still had it.

The kiss ended. Taako's hand was resting on Magnus's heart, and Magnus could feel his pulse thrumming in his ears.

Taako took a breath. "I definitely burned a hole in your blanket," he said.

"Your blanket now," Magnus said.

"No, I'm trading," Taako said, tossing it at Magnus, and that just led to a wrestling match which Magnus won handily, or would have won, had Taako not levitated him off of the bed. Magnus hovered helplessly in the air, flailing his arms. Taako grinned up at him.

"Not fair!" Magnus protested.

"I need any advantage I can get," Taako said, "but here, I'll throw you a bone."

He pulled Magnus in for another kiss, and not too long after that, Magnus fell out of the air, but they rolled with it.

*

The kissing was great. So was the rest of it -- Taako was even more gorgeous when his face was flushed and his chest bare, and wickedly good with his hands, to boot. Afterwards they fell asleep, comfortably sprawled together, and that became their new normal.

But Taako was always gone when Magnus woke up, even now, and actively dodged any physical affection that Magnus offered during daylight hours. He continued to touch Magnus whenever he wanted, but shied away from kisses or anything less platonic than a high-five. Magnus didn't understand why, and Taako dodged questions as well in his usual infuriating way.

"Just enjoy the ride, my man," he would say, or if they were in private, he'd kiss him instead. It was the kind of thing Magnus might have expected from him, given his fickle personality, but he still found himself disappointed. He tried not to be. He was a guy who jumped into everything with both feet, and goodness knew that had caused him problems before. Taako was more cautious than he was, and Taako had his own demons to contend with. The midnight baking hadn't stopped, although it had lessened in frequency. Magnus wondered what it was like to be in love like a normal person, like someone who wasn't a widower, someone who didn't have all of this baggage. He really couldn't remember.

*

The training program the Director had them on was fierce. Magnus was used to impressing her with their prowess, but now nothing they did seemed quite good enough. She watched their training classes sometimes, but never smiled. He wanted her confidence back. Sometimes after the day had ended, he'd go eat dinner with their friends and then go back out to the training ground and do another few rounds with the punching bag or run a few more laps. They had to do this -- the world depended on it, the beautiful tiny sphere hanging over him in the -- moonlight? Worldlight? -- and he didn't want to think about what would be next when they were done. He had to focus on now.

It was late when he got back to his room, fresh from a shower and deep in his head, both about their upcoming mission and the uncertain state of his relationship with Taako. Taako had swatted Magnus's hand out of his plate this morning at breakfast, and then he'd stood back to back with him as they practiced melee fighting, Taako firing off magic missiles with abandon, laughing the entire time, Magnus shredded the robots that came at him with hardly a moment to breathe. The Director had scolded Magnus for showering his teammates with possibly dangerous debris, and Taako had complained the entire time he was picking pieces out of his hair. Magnus had been pretty proud of the work he'd done with Railsplitter until that point, but it seemed that nothing was good enough right now.

Magnus opened the door to his room and found Taako sprawled out on his bed on top of the covers, wearing one of Magnus's shirts that he had until this moment thought he'd lost over a month ago. It was a (very short, admittedly) dress on him, sliding off one shoulder even though he'd fastened it loosely at the neck. Taako blinked lazily as Magnus put the candle down on his dresser and began to fish through the drawers to find something to wear to bed.

"You smell good," Taako said, not moving.

"Took a shower. You might want to think about it sometime," Magnus answered shortly. He could feel Taako's gaze on his back as he put on a shirt. His neck twinged a little with a pleasing soreness, but he still felt tense.

"When I sweat it smells like cinnamon," Taako answered, which was definitely not true. "Are you doing extra work? I don't think the Director gives out extra credit. We die or we find another relic. No in-betweens."

"Yeah, well," Magnus replied, "for some reason, I'm trying not to die. Funny thing." They'd all been flippant about dying before -- it was the only way to cope sometimes with the work that they did. He didn't know why it was irritating him now, the way Taako tried not to take anything seriously. Normally it was a comfort.

"Hilarious," Taako agreed. Magnus blew out the candle and stumbled carefully toward the bed. This morning he'd stepped on a macaroon so old that it had disintegrated rather than crunched under his foot. He hadn't brought it in here. He hadn't brought the little glass bubble full of a dark swirling liquid that sat next to Steven's bubble. He definitely wasn't the owner of the silver silk scarf that was draped over the ax stand in the corner, or the keeper of the small birch wand he'd found under his bed (although he did appreciate the slight glow it gave off when he was looking for a sock he'd lost under there).

He sat down on the bed and Taako's leg, judging by the affronted squeal that Taako made. He stood up again.

"Don't you have your own bed?" he asked irritably.

"Yeah, but…" Taako began, and then stopped.

"Do you finally want to talk about this, Taako? I'm assuming you're not sleeping in Merle's bed when you're not in mine, because I'm pretty sure he would have said something about your greater bond or some shit."

Magnus was so tired. He ran a hand down his face and sat down on the edge of the bed again. His eyes hadn't adjusted, but he knew Taako had sat up, judging by the sounds of the covers shifting. He could see him in his mind, straight-backed with his legs crossed, staring at his hands in his lap.

"Gross," Taako said immediately. "Merle definitely gets old man boners in his sleep. I mean, come on. No way. Anyway, it's not -- I'm not -- it's not like. You're warm, is all. I'm stealing all of your heat. Deal with it."

"You probably wouldn't be cold if you wore more clothes," Magnus pointed out, yawning.

"But my aesthetic--!" Taako huffed. "Fine, whatever, I can read the room," he continued, growing more sarcastic. "I'll go practice my lute loudly in the common room or something, enjoy your sleep."

He barely touched Magnus as he rushed out of the room, slamming the door behind himself with more force than necessary.

 

"You could do your dishes!" Magnus yelled through the door. Receiving no response, he stretched out on the bed and waited for sleep to come.

Strangely, he had to wait a long time.

*

Just like that, they were back to the way they had been before they had started sleeping together. It wasn't an obvious difference to everyone else, or so Magnus thought. Taako still teased him and Merle, still made snide comments when Railsplitter didn't quite do the job or when a wooden duck came out with a wonky beak. But he stayed out of Magnus's room like he'd been banned. The silver scarf disappeared, as did the inky bubble and a few other little things Magnus hadn't even noticed until they were gone. Taako kept the door to his bedroom shut, and they all still met for dinner in the cafeteria like always. They trained like crazy and the Director still seemed worried.

Magnus missed Taako. It was crazy to miss someone you saw every day, someone so loud and opinionated that he was never missing from the conversation. Taako wasn't leaving him out of anything either -- it was just as if they'd rewound time between them to before Taako began staying with Magnus, and restarted there. Taako said absolutely nothing about it, even when the two of them were alone.

He also did not start doing his dishes, but that would have just been too weird. Magnus continued to throw away as many of them as he could get away with and reluctantly cleaned the rest.

*

"You want to help me plant a tree?"

It was their day off, and Magnus was taking the time to lay on the couch and do absolutely nothing. He had fought the guilt he felt for skipping his morning workout and slept in, even though it was a light, uncomfortable sleep. Once he'd given up on that, he'd gotten out of bed, eaten a sandwich for breakfast instead of going to the cafeteria, and sprawled out on the couch. There was a book bent open at the spine on his stomach, but he'd barely read one page. Magnus blinked, and Merle was staring down at him. He repeated the question.

"Uh, sure," Magnus said, sitting up. He followed Merle out across the quad to the sizeable garden kept by the Bureau (needed due to the difficulty of receiving deliveries on the moon). Merle was carrying a small pot with a very scraggly plant in it and humming to himself, his Extreme Teen Bible tucked under his other arm. Magnus had the shovel. He began to dig where Merle pointed, and enjoyed the work in the way that he enjoyed any strenuous physical activity, feeling the warm burn in his muscles and smelling the earth as he turned it over.

"It might not be any of my business," Merle said, "but do you want to talk about it?"

Magnus stopped shoveling, and he knew his face was betraying that he knew exactly what Merle was talking about, but he still said, "Talk about what?"

"Look, I'm old, but I'm not stupid," Merle said. "Something's changed between you and Taako. He's being all mopey. "

"I haven't noticed," Magnus said, half-heartedly returning to shoveling.

"That's because he only does it when you aren't around," Merle said. "And when is the last time you slept through the night?"

"I have insomnia," Magnus said stubbornly. "It's not a big deal."

"I probably have a potion that can help with that," Merle said. "I'm sure I have something for enchanted sleep…" He grabbed the Awareness Frames he wore on a chain around his neck, put them on, and then flipped to the back index of his Bible.

"Don't worry about it because I'm _fine_ ," Magnus said. "Are we planting this thing or not?" Magnus looked at the tree. He'd dug the hole way too deep judging by the size of the pot. He began to clumsily shovel some of the dirt back into place.

"Sure, sure," Merle said. "I was just saying, if you wanted to talk about it, that's kind of my job. Plus, I'm your friend. Dumbass."

He held up a hand to get Magnus to stop shoveling, and then got down on his knees to plant the tree. He was a little too into it for Magnus's tastes and Magnus looked away awkwardly as Merle gently eased the roots from the pot and lowered the plant into the ground, cooing at it the whole time.

"I don't know what I want," Magnus said at last, as they were trudging back to the dormitories. Merle looked up at him and smiled.

"It's hilarious that you think he does," Merle said, and Magnus couldn't argue with that.

*

When they got back to the dorms, Taako wasn't there, and he didn't answer his stone of farspeech either -- Magnus could hear the stone ringing in Taako's pit of a bedroom. Now that he'd made up his mind to say something, Magnus felt frustrated by the delay. He waited impatiently in the common room and practiced what he wanted to say, turning Julia's ring over and over in his fingers. It wasn't that he was any more certain about whatever this was he had with Taako, or where it was going to go. It was that he'd realized that he wanted to find out.

He awoke with a start when he heard pans banging together in the little galley kitchen. He must have dozed off while waiting. He wasn't sure what time it was, squinting in the dimness. Tucking the ring back into his shirt, he got up and went into the kitchen.

Taako was doing the dishes. He had a sour expression on his face, and he was wearing bright yellow rubber gloves that went to his elbows. Even with the gloves, he seemed reluctant to scrub. He was turning a finger in the air thoughtfully like he was considering a spell instead.

"Personally," Magnus said, "I start by throwing away the forks. No one needs forks."

"Save me from this hell," Taako said.

"Are you kidding? I should take fantasy photographs as proof this is happening," Magnus said. "I didn't think you even understood the concept of cleaning dishes."

"No, I'm just an asshole who doesn't do house chores," Taako said, looking sadly at the sink, and that's when Magnus grabbed his arm.

"Let Merle do them," he said, tugging, and Taako allowed himself to be pulled back into Magnus's bedroom. Magnus shut the door behind them and Taako stood in the middle of the room, his arms crossed.

"I took my stuff. I'm not giving your shirt back. That is the most comfortable shirt ever," Taako said after a moment of uncertain silence.

"This is not a breakup, Taako," Magnus said.

"Still not giving your shirt back."

"Fine." Magnus sighed. He scratched the back of his neck. This was already harder than he thought it would be. All of the words he'd thought of earlier had floated away while he was waiting for Taako to come back.

"Will you sit with me?" Magnus asked, gesturing toward the bed. There was a chair in the room -- two actually -- but one needed its legs adjusted and the other was only half-finished, and they were stacked on top of each other. He really should put them back in the workshop for now. The only places to sit were the floor or the bed. Magnus sat down on the bed. After a moment's consideration, Taako pushed some of Magnus's folded laundry to the side and sat down on top of his dresser.

"Really?" Magnus said.

"Wouldn't want to get too close," Taako said, not meeting Magnus's eyes. He peeled off the yellow gloves and tossed them to the floor, and then leaned down and kicked them under the bed. Then he straightened and crossed his legs, one ankle over the other, resting his hands on his knee.

Magnus opened his mouth to ask why Taako was being so difficult, but instead he said, "Are you mad at me?"

"Seriously? Seriously? _Seriously_?" Taako asked, leaning back on the dresser as if he'd been blown backwards. "Did you really just turn this around on me? You must be the wizard, Mags."

"What?" Magnus said, genuinely confused.

"You kick me out of your bed in the middle of the night because I was mad at _you_? In what world does that make sense?"

"That's not -- Taako, what the hell are we doing?" Magnus asked, throwing up his hands. "I miss you. This is stupid."

Taako pursed his lips. "Is this feelings? Are we doing feelings now? I told you, I don't do feelings. Taako's good out here."

"This sounds an awful lot like feelings. That you are having. Towards me," Magnus pointed out.

"Au contraire," Taako countered, "you seem to be doing all of the talking."

Magnus took a deep breath.

"I can't sleep without you. I don't want to. Maybe you really don't care and it doesn't matter to you for real. But I think you do care."

Taako snorted and crossed his arms, but he was still looking away from Magnus in a manner that suggested he didn't quite feel like he could meet Magnus's eyes. His foot was twitching a little.

"Look," Taako said, "if you need a butt-warmer, I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of women around who would volunteer for the position. Lots of people with a hero complex hang out at the Bureau. Kind of a thing."

"No," Magnus responded immediately. "It's you, Taako. I want you here with me. All the time. Taking up three-quarters of the bed and leaving cracker crumbs. Leaving your ridiculously long hair in the shower drain. Sharing all the good gossip you get from Angus. Arguing over who has to do the dishes. Everything."

"You do the dishes," Taako said, but the tension in his body eased a little. He sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I got too attached," he said, almost to himself. "Stupid Taako. I've gone and ruined it again. Sizzled this one right up."

"What are you saying?" Magnus said, confused again. "Is this all because I was grumpy the other day? Because, you may have noticed, I am grumpy when I am tired. And when I think too hard about how the fate of the goddamn world is in our hands. It seems like they should have professionals for that and not us."

"Yeah, well, if you remember, the gods we've met so far haven't exactly seemed particularly competent," Taako pointed out. "There's only little old fucked-up us. And we are dumb babies, Magnus. Especially you."

"Thanks," Magnus answered, and there was silence for a moment before Taako hopped down from his perch on the dresser and inserted himself into Magnus's lap. After a moment, Magnus began to pet his hair.

"I figured you'd gotten tired of me all up in your grill," Taako said into Magnus's neck. "So I went away, and normally that's _fine_. We still had everything else and that what matters anyway. Why push it? I need you to be my meat shield. I don't want you second-guessing it because I steal all the blankets or something."

Magnus's arms tightened a little around Taako. Taako was proportioned differently than Magnus was -- long-legged and slender, with a shorter torso and slight build that meant he fit perfectly on Magnus's knees. He had a bony ass that was digging into Magnus's thigh, but Magnus was going to just deal with it.

"And I need you," Magnus began slowly, "to set distant enemies on fire, and also to steal all my blankets. Even though I bought an extra one at the Fantasy Costco. You just started stealing that one too. I'm not tired of you. I'll never be tired of you. I'm pretty sure you could entertain me for the rest of my life. But none of that is why I want you to stay."

"Well, get to the point! Save the heroic speeches for the plebs," Taako said. He pushed on Magnus's chest and Magnus wasn't sure where Taako wanted him to go, so he relaxed back onto the bed and Taako sort of slid down onto his chest, resting his head on Magnus's heart and grabbing Magnus's arm with one hand to slide it onto Taako's waist. Taako yawned, but this time he caught Magnus's eye and Magnus could tell it was in a semi-theatrical manner. He wanted an excuse to lay there together. Magnus wasn't sure how to tell him that he didn't need an excuse, because he thought that's what he was saying already.

"I love you. And you love me, and you don't have to say it, because I have proof and it's those stupid yellow gloves growing mold under my bed. Okay? That's what I wanted to say. Your move."

"They can't be growing mold, they've only been down there for like… three minutes," Taako grumbled. "Go to sleep, Magnus. I'll stay. I guess--" He hesitated for a long moment. Magnus watched Taako's head bob gently on his chest as he breathed in and out.

"I'll make pancakes tomorrow," Taako said finally.

"With blueberries in them," Magnus said, not fighting a grin.

"Oh, demanding already! I was going to do pecans," Taako said.

"Also good," Magnus agreed.

"I didn't say I'd share them either," Taako continued. "You'll have to fight me for them."

"I think I can take you," Magnus answered lazily.

However, by the time that they emerged from Magnus's room the next morning, it was way too late to make breakfast -- Carey was already going to chide them for being late to practice, and although Taako somehow looked perfect as usual, Magnus had a bite mark that wasn't quite hidden by the neck of his shirt, and his hair was sticking straight up on one side. Everyone was going to know.

When they slunk in and tried to stand in the back of the group (a useless gesture given that they were in a class with Merle, Killian, and like two other people), Carey looked at them, shook her head, and then ceremoniously handed Killian a five-dollar coin.

"Told you," Killian said, and then proceeded to kick Magnus's ass because he was too distracted for a proper grappling exercise. Magnus didn't mind too much. Somehow, despite the bruising and lack of sleep, he felt light and well-rested. Taako shot him a secret smile over his shoulder before blasting Angus with a very tiny fireball, and Magnus took the hit.


End file.
